In line with my trip to Tennessee, here’s another stroll down memory lane in regard to some intriguing history about a tale from that state involving alleged Bigfoot encounters, garlic, marshmallows, and more.

The following article was shared with me by Tulsa Bigfoot researcher Matt Knapp. It overviews one editor’s reaction to a couple television documentaries he saw in October three years ago.

Remember, the opinions expressed in this review of these recent screenings are solely those of the following author and do not necessarily reflect that of Cryptomundo and this individual blogger.

A Tennessee grandfather teaches “Fox” to cook marshmallows over fire; click to increase size of image.

I was going to let the Bigfoot thing alone for awhile. But two programs were on television [on October 23, 2007] at the same time that gave me more amusement than the comedy channel.

My biggest laughter comes from the mountains of East Tennessee. This particular Bigfoot is a friendly sort, and one mountain woman claims to have been raised alongside a family of Bigfoot. She described how one came knocking on her door and asked to borrow some garlic. This Bigfoot spoke English. She said she thought the garlic was to help keep away ticks. She said he said “thank you” in a very deep voice. But I’m thinking it might have been the baritone singer for the Oak Ridge Boys, and her natural cures for arthritis were kicking in.

Then she went on to describe how she had watched this family of Bigfoot chase down a deer and butcher it. This commentary had a Bigfoot specialist from Russia on hand to compare notes with her. He re-enacted how the Bigfoot caught and killed the deer. Very fittingly, the Russian’s name was Igor.

Given the vernacular of this account, I’m surprised this Bigfoot didn’t also play the banjo.

This woman said she realized that a lot of people doubted her, especially when she said this Bigfoot spoke English. Of course my wife asked me what would I expect an American Bigfoot to speak … French?

Well, this mountain woman is right about the doubt. I was cutting her some slack because of the ointments she probably uses, but that ended when she said Bigfoot asked to borrow some garlic. And anyway, I would think it was for cholesterol, not ticks.

Then down in the Everglades, these fellows were searching for the “Skunk Ape.” This apparently is Bigfoot’s third cousin.

The boys looking for the “Skunk Ape” in Florida say they want to verify the creature’s existence so they can help protect its environment. Such a noble cause.

But in Texas, the Bigfoot hunters are taking a different approach. Their spokesman said he wanted to kill a Bigfoot so he could prove to the world that they exist. And then he would seek to preserve its habitat. So instead of cameras, they — including at least one woman — go into the bush with pump shotguns. Good thing they are not hunting for one in Tennessee. I would guess that a Bigfoot that can speak English and borrow garlic can also return fire.

Then up in Oklahoma, Bigfoot searchers were gathering at a place called “Monster Central.” Now get this, Monster Central is only 60 acres. That’s about the size of a small amusement park — all pun intended. Now if this creature can be stealth in that small of an area, the U.S. military should be studying its techniques. But then it could be that 60 acres is all that is owned by the guy promoting monsters. Ya think?

I have a suggestion for these people. Pool all the money you are spending on beer and marshmallows for these outings and rent some thermal imaging equipment. Surely in a 60-acre patch, you can apply this technology to your advantage. We have guys who can find a golf ball in 60 acres of rough with just two beers.

One real scientist was interviewed in this entire comedy routine. He managed to keep a straight face long enough to say that there is no scientific data to support any of these claims. I think the reason he kept from rolling in the floor laughing was because no one specifically asked him about the English-speaking Bigfoot that asked to borrow some garlic.

My offer still stands, $50 for anyone who can prove Bigfoot. Better hurry, you know the value of the dollar.by Dwain Walden, The Moultrie Observer, 24 October 2007.

Photographic recreation of Janice pulling out hair from Fox’s hand when giving him some garlic, March 2004. This montage was made using a photograph of Janice in the same dress and position as then. After the first attempt of drawing this meeting, Janice corrected it several times until it achieved similarity to how she remembered it. Click on photo to make it larger.

What is the latest on Janice Carter, Fox, and the other Tennessee Bigfoot contactee stories?

Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).

Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.

Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

A minor point of correction: As many of your readers know, “Monster Central” is in Louisiana, not Oklahoma. It is the place where Jim Lansdale of the GCBRO claims to have seen what he calls “monsters” on numerous occasions.

They tell some Tall Tales in Tennessee and one can never be quite sure when they’re serious and when they’re pulling your leg. This is especially true when one is an “outsider”.

One of the best is the tale of the Wampus Cat—but “Janice” shows some real talent. One can find wild garlic in Tennessee (and it can be easily stored in a dry cave) so a creature as close to nature as Bigfoot wouln’t need to “borry any.” ONIONS on the other hand would be a different thing).

THE WAMPUS CAT

retold by
S. E. Schlosser

They say that the Wampus cat used to be a beautiful Indian woman. The men of her tribe were always going on hunting trips, but the women had to stay home. The Indian woman secretly followed her husband one day when he went hunting with the other men. She hid herself behind a rock, clutching the hide of a mountain cat around her, and spied on the men as they sat around their campfires telling sacred stories and doing magic.

According to the laws of the tribe, it was absolutely forbidden for women to hear the sacred stories and see the tribe’s magic. So when the Indian woman was discovered, the medicine man punished her by binding her into the mountain cat skin she wore and then transforming her into a terrible monster – half woman and half mountain cat. Ever after she was doomed to roam the hills, howling desolately because she desires to return to her normal body.

A man was hunting one night with his dogs when they both whimpered and ran off the path. At that moment, the woods were overpowered with a horrible smell like that of a wet animal that had fallen into a bog after it messed with a skunk. Then something howled on the path behind him and the man whirled around, dropping his rifle. His heart pounding with fear, the man found himself staring into the big, glowing yellow eyes of the Wampus Cat. The creature had huge fangs dripping with salvia. It looked kind of like a mountain lion, but it was walking upright like a man. Then it howled, and the man’s skin nearly turned inside out in horror.

With a scream of terror, the man leapt backwards and ran as fast as he could through the woods, the Wampus Cat on his heels. He fled to the home of a friend who lived nearby, and burst through the front door only a breath ahead of the creature. His friend slammed the door in the face of the Wampus Cat. Instantly, it started shuddering under the weight of the attacking monster. The man’s friend grabbed his Bible and started reading aloud from the Psalms. Upon hearing the holy words, the Wampus Cat howled in frustration and then slowly abandoned its attack and went back into the woods.

The man spent the rest of the night at his friend’s place. When he went home at daybreak, he found his dogs huddled in the barn, shaken but still alive. The man never hunted after dark again.

Cass_of_MPLS Actually, wild onions, known as ramps, are abundant in East Tennessee. There is actually a Ramps Festival in the late spring, and they too can be stored in a dry, cool cave. Probably, since the Bigfoot in these tales speaks English, they trade dried ramps for dried or otherwise preserved seafood from Louisiana and Florida. People who eat ramps have a very strong and distinctive odor, reminiscent of both a three-days-in-a-bog dog and a roadkill skunk. Obviously, this Bigfoot FedEx (SasEx?) is the genesis of the separation between Bigfoot and SkunkApe. If one had absolutely nothing else to do with one’s life, an entire continent-wide system of Bigfoot trading posts and ankle express routes could be extrapolated, along with hunting lodges, fishing holes, and river tubing spots made just for Bigfoot. That’s probably why we can’t find them, they’re all on vacation and don’t want to be found. And as for the ‘why can’t we find a body?’ crowd…Bigfoot funeral homes, of course.

This is my problem with people like the promulgators of these Bigfoot tall tales. They make “skeptics” whose primary qualification is their refusal to educate themselves on the evidence look intelligent.